• Jessica Richardson, Abhishek Datta, Jacek Dmochowski, Lucas C Parra, and Julius Fridriksson.
• Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, The University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.
• NeuroRehabilitation. 2015 Jan 1; 36 (1): 115-26.

BackgroundTranscranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) enhances treatment outcomes post-stroke. Feasibility and tolerability of high-definition (HD) tDCS (a technique that increases current focality and intensity) for consecutive weekdays as an adjuvant to behavioral treatment in a clinical population has not been demonstrated.ObjectiveTo determine HD-tDCS feasibility outcomes: 1) ability to implement study as designed, 2) acceptability of repeated HD-tDCS administration to patients, and 3) preliminary efficacy.MethodsEight patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia participated in a randomized crossover trial with two arms: conventional sponge-based (CS) tDCS and HD-tDCS. Computerized anomia treatment was administered for five consecutive days during each treatment arm.ResultsIndividualized modeling/targeting procedures and an 8-channel HD-tDCS device were developed. CS-tDCS and HD-tDCS were comparable in terms of implementation, acceptability, and outcomes. Naming accuracy and response time improved for both stimulation conditions. Change in accuracy of trained items was numerically higher (but not statistically significant) for HD-tDCS compared to CS-tDCS for most patients.ConclusionsRegarding feasibility, HD-tDCS treatment studies can be implemented when designed similarly to documented CS-tDCS studies. HD-tDCS is likely to be acceptable to patients and clinicians. Preliminary efficacy data suggest that HD-tDCS effects, using only 4 electrodes, are at least comparable to CS-tDCS.

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